VulnerabilityAnalyzed
CVE-2019-9978
WordPress Social Warfare Plugin Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) Vulnerability
KEVMEDIUM 6.1EPSS 72.9%
Does this matter?
Known to be exploited in the wild (CISA KEV, CISA remediation deadline 3 May 2022). Treat as an emergency change: patch or isolate now, then hunt for prior compromise.
Description
The social-warfare plugin before 3.5.3 for WordPress has stored XSS via the wp-admin/admin-post.php?swp_debug=load_options swp_url parameter, as exploited in the wild in March 2019. This affects Social Warfare and Social Warfare Pro.
- CVSS 3.1
- 6.1 MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
- EPSS
- 72.95% probability · 99th percentile
- CISA KEV
- Listed 3 November 2021 · due 3 May 2022
- Weakness
- CWE-79
- Affected
- warfareplugins/social warfare · warfareplugins/social warfare pro
- Source
- cve@mitre.org
CISA notes
Apply updates per vendor instructions. https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-9978
References
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/152722/Wordpress-Social-Warfare-Remote-Code-Execution.htmlExploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/163680/WordPress-Social-Warfare-3.5.2-Remote-Code-Execution.htmlExploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- https://blog.sucuri.net/2019/03/zero-day-stored-xss-in-social-warfare.htmlExploit, Third Party Advisory
- https://twitter.com/warfareplugins/status/1108852747099652099Third Party Advisory
- https://wordpress.org/plugins/social-warfare/#developersProduct
- https://wpvulndb.com/vulnerabilities/9238Broken Link, Third Party Advisory
- https://www.cybersecurity-help.cz/vdb/SB2019032105Exploit, Third Party Advisory
- https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/46794/Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- https://www.pluginvulnerabilities.com/2019/03/21/full-disclosure-of-settings-change-persistent-cross-site-scripting-xss-vulnerability-in-social-warfare/Exploit, Third Party Advisory
- https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2019/03/unpatched-zero-day-vulnerability-in-social-warfare-plugin-exploited-in-the-wild/Third Party Advisory
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/152722/Wordpress-Social-Warfare-Remote-Code-Execution.htmlExploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/163680/WordPress-Social-Warfare-3.5.2-Remote-Code-Execution.htmlExploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2025/Jun/1Mailing List
- https://blog.sucuri.net/2019/03/zero-day-stored-xss-in-social-warfare.htmlExploit, Third Party Advisory
- https://twitter.com/warfareplugins/status/1108852747099652099Third Party Advisory
- https://wordpress.org/plugins/social-warfare/#developersProduct
- https://wpvulndb.com/vulnerabilities/9238Broken Link, Third Party Advisory
- https://www.cybersecurity-help.cz/vdb/SB2019032105Exploit, Third Party Advisory
- https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/46794/Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- https://www.pluginvulnerabilities.com/2019/03/21/full-disclosure-of-settings-change-persistent-cross-site-scripting-xss-vulnerability-in-social-warfare/Exploit, Third Party Advisory
- https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2019/03/unpatched-zero-day-vulnerability-in-social-warfare-plugin-exploited-in-the-wild/Third Party Advisory
- https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2019-9978US Government Resource
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA. Refreshed daily.